Chapter 2: The X Window System

OVERVIEW

Up to this point we've been immersed with Netcat and the command line. Some users view command-line tools as cryptic and less functional than a graphical-based counterpart , while others view command-line tools as efficient and less cumbersome. Either way, command-line tools can't accomplish every task as easily as you might hope.

Graphical tools can help visualize data and put it into a form a user can interpret. Microsoft's windowing subsystem has become the core of its operating systems. You can't install a Windows operating system and just interact with it using the command line; the windowing subsystem is too integrated. The windowing subsystem for Unix-based systems, the X Window System (X), is an optional, albeit highly useful, install.

You're going to need X for many of the tools covered in this book, so a brief description of this system is provided here to demonstrate how it works and how to secure it. The installation and configuration options are extensive and beyond the scope of this book, but we'll aim to give you a general understanding of what's going on in X. We'll also touch on some inherent security concerns with X that you'll want to keep in mind.